The Shining (film)
.The Shining is a 1980 horror film
directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. Kubrick
co-wrote the screenplay with novelist Diane Johnson. The film stars Jack Nicholson
as tormented writer Jack Torrance, Shelley Duvall as his wife, Wendy, and Danny
Lloyd as their son, Danny.
Budget $22 million
Gross
revenue $64,984,856
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Produced by Stanley
Kubrick
Jan Harlan
Martin Richards
Written by Novel:
Stephen King
Screenplay:
Stanley
Kubrick
Diane Johnson
Tagline
A Masterpiece Of Modern Horror
The tide of terror that swept America IS HERE
Stanley Kubrick's epic nightmare of horro
The Horror is driving him crazy
He Came As The Caretaker,
But This Hotel Had Its Own Guardians - Who'd Been There A Long Time
Cast
Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
Shelley Duvall - Wendy Torrance
Danny Lloyd - Danny Torrance
Scatman Crothers - Dick Hallorann
Barry Nelson - Stuart Ullman
Philip Stone - Delbert Grady
Joe Turkel
- Lloyd the Bartender
Anne Jackson - Doctor
Tony Burton - Larry Durkin
Lia Beldam - Young Woman in Bath
Billie Gibson - Old Woman in Bath
Barry Dennen - Bill Watson
David Baxt - Forest Ranger #1
Manning Redwood
- Forest Ranger #2
Lisa Burns - Grady Twin Daughter
Louise Burns - Grady
Twin Daughter
Robin Pappas - Nurse
Alison Coleridge - Susie the Secretary
Burnell Tucker - Policeman
Jana Sheldon - Stewardess
Kate Phelps
- Receptionist
Norman Gay - Injured Guest
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vivian Kubrick - Smoking Guest on Ballroom Couch
Derek
Lyons - Overlook Hotel Bellhop
Plot
Former
teacher and recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance interviews for a caretaker job
at the Overlook Hotel in an effort to rebuild his life after his volatile temper
lost him a teaching position. Jack intends to spend the winter at the hotel working
on a new novel. The hotel manager, Mr. Ullman, warns Jack that he and his family
will be snowbound through most of the winter and of the potential for cabin fever.
He further reinforces his point by recounting a season when the caretaker, Charles
Grady, went crazy and brutally killed his wife, his two girls (ages eight and
ten), and finally himself. Given his own desperation and the opportunity to pursue
his true passion, writing, Jack acknowledges the warning, but accepts the job.
Meanwhile, Jack's son Danny has a seizure while talking to his imaginary friend Tony about the Overlook Hotel. He has a vision of an elevator opening and a wave of blood pouring out (in extreme slow motion), an image which is revisited several times throughout the film. In the next scene, a doctor examines Danny and is told by Danny's mother, Wendy, that Jack had accidentally injured Danny in a drunken rage a few years before.
Upon Danny's arrival at the hotel, head chef Dick Hallorann recognizes that Danny is telepathic, and speaks to him mentally to offer him an ice cream. He explains that he and his grandmother both had the gift; she referred to this communication as "shining." He also counsels Danny about the hotel, hinting that something terrible had happened there and left a trace, "as if someone burned toast", that only people who had the gift could perceive. Danny questions Dick about what went on in the hotel, and about room 237 in particular as Danny can sense that Dick is especially afraid of that room. Dick answers that there is nothing in Room 237, but sternly warns Danny to stay out of that room.
At first, Jack seems to be enjoying the serenity of the hotel and the mountains,
and mentions to Wendy that when he first arrived for his interview, he felt a
sense of déjà vu. But soon afterwards, Jack's mental health deteriorates
rapidly once the family is alone in the hotel. Winter weather arrives in the mountains,
and Jack begins breaking down. He has writer's block, sleeps too little, and is
irritable. Danny has visions of the two murdered girls, but tells no one. He continues
to wonder about room 237.
One day, a ball rolls toward Danny as he plays with his toys. It appears to have come from the open door of room 237, which Danny enters. At that moment, Wendy comes running from the basement at the sound of Jack's screams. She comforts him as he tells her that he had a nightmare in which he used an axe to chop Danny and her to pieces. Before she can react, Danny appears at the other end of the room, looking disoriented and sucking his thumb. His sweater is ripped and there are bruises on his neck. He does not answer when she asks what happened. She angrily accuses Jack and takes the child back to their suite.
Jack is furious about the accusation. He storms around the hotel, making his way to the Gold Ballroom. Sinking defeatedly on to the barstool, his head in his hands, Jack declares that he would sell his soul for one drink. When he looks up he discovers a bartender, who serves him a drink. Jack is not fazed by the sudden appearance of the bartender and even addresses him by his name, Lloyd. In the ensuing conversation Jack describes in a defensive way his version of Danny's injury. Suddenly a frantic Wendy enters; Danny claims to have encountered "a crazy woman" in the hotel with them in room 237. Jack is doubtful, but goes to investigate.
Jack's exploration of room 237 is a tipping point for three characters: Danny, Jack, and Dick. While Jack is inside the room, Danny appears to be having a seizure in his own room while Dick, on vacation in Florida, seems to pick up on a signal Danny is sending.
Jack cautiously enters room 237 and hears noises from the bathroom. He watches lustfully as a young, beautiful naked woman (Lia Beldam) pulls back the shower curtain and steps slowly out of the bathtub. The two approach each other and embrace in a passionate kiss. Jack catches a glimpse of their reflection in the mirror and sees the woman is actually a rotting corpse. He recoils in horror, seeing that the young lady has transformed into an elderly woman (Billie Gibson); a walking corpse with rotten, sagging skin. She cackles madly while reaching for him with her stretched arms. In a frightened panic, Jack staggers out of the room, locking the door after him.
When he reports back to Wendy, Jack denies anything amiss in room 237, insisting that Danny inflicted the wounds on himself. Wendy suggests they take Danny to a doctor. Jack becomes irate, lecturing Wendy on her thoughtlessness and blaming her for everything that's gone wrong in his life. Insisting that they can't leave the hotel because of his obligation to his employers, he storms out, returning to the Gold Room, which is now the scene of an extravagant party with guests dressed in 1920s fashion. Lloyd serves him a drink and Jack goes to mingle. He doesn't get far before a butler carrying a tray runs into him, spilling advocaat on his jacket. The butler convinces Jack to come into the bathroom with him to clean up.
The butler introduces himself as Delbert Grady. Jack remembers the story Mr. Ullman told him about a man named Grady and confronts Grady with the information. Grady assures Jack that nothing of the sort took place and that, furthermore, Jack had always been the caretaker, not Grady. Jack is confused, but seems to accept Grady's story. Grady goes on to tell Jack that Danny has "a great talent" and is using it to bring "an outside party into this situation." Grady advises Jack on how to correct Danny, and how to correct Wendy if she interferes.
Meanwhile, back in Florida, Dick has had no luck contacting the Torrances at the Overlook Hotel. He books the next flight to Colorado.
At the Overlook Hotel, Wendy arms herself with a baseball bat and goes searching for Jack, intent on leaving the hotel with Danny with or without Jack. During her search, she spots his manuscript next to the typewriter. She reads what Jack has been writing: hundreds of pages of repetitions of a single sentence, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". She realizes Jack has gone mad.
Jack approaches from behind and asks, "How do you like it?" Wendy shrieks with alarm and turns. A confrontation ensues as Jack demands to know her intentions regarding leaving the hotel with Danny, while Wendy just tries to get away. Wendy pleads with Jack not to hurt her, and he swears that he will not; instead, he intends to kill her. Wendy hits Jack in the head with the bat at the top of a flight of stairs, knocking him unconscious. Jack tumbles down the staircase, injuring his ankle in the process.
Wendy
drags Jack's limp body to the pantry and locks him inside, just as he regains
consciousness. Jack tells her he has sabotaged the radio, as well as the snowcat,
stranding them all there with him. She goes outside to check on the snowcat, and
confirms what he told her.
A few hours later, Jack is roused from a nap by the sound of Delbert Grady's voice. Grady expresses disappointment and a lack of confidence in Jack, but Jack assures him he can get the job done if given one more chance. The pantry door then suddenly becomes unlocked.
Wendy has fallen asleep in her room. Danny is in a trance, carrying a knife and muttering "redrum" repeatedly. He takes Wendy's lipstick and writes "REDRUM" on the bathroom door. He begins shouting "REDRUM", which wakes Wendy. She clutches him to her, then sees the reflection of the bathroom door in the mirror. Reversed, it reads: "MURDER." At that instant, banging sounds start coming from the door.
The sound is Jack swinging an axe at the locked door. Wendy grabs Danny and locks them in the bathroom. She opens a tiny, snowbanked window and pushes Danny out; he slides safely to the ground. She tries to get out the same window, but cannot fit. She tells Danny to run and hide.
Meanwhile, Jack chops his way through the front door and begins chopping down the bathroom door. Wendy begs him to stop, screaming for her life. After chopping away one of the panels, he sticks his head through (in what was to become an iconic moment in horror film history) and screams,"Heeeere's JOHNNY!" (a reference to Johnny Carson). Jack sticks his hand through the gap to turn the lock. Wendy slashes at him with a knife, landing a blow to the hand and sending Jack recoiling in pain. They both hear the low rumble of an approaching snowcat engine. He stalks out.
The snowcat driver is Dick. Inside the hotel, he calls out, but gets no reply. Jack, hiding behind a pillar, leaps out at him and swings the axe into his chest, killing him. Danny, hiding in a kitchen cabinet, cries out as Dick screams in agony. Jack hears Danny's scream, and traces it to a hallway nearby. Danny climbs out of the metal cabinet and runs for his life, with Jack in pursuit.
Meanwhile, Wendy has collected herself and is on the lookout for Danny. She has several ghostly encounters (including the visual experience of seeing torrents of blood coming out of the elevator as Danny saw it) during the search but refuses to let them deter her. At the same time, axe-wielding Jack follows Danny into the hedge maze.
Danny realizes he is leaving a trail of footprints for Jack to follow. He carefully retraces his steps, then hides behind a hedge. When Jack arrives, he sees that the footprints have disappeared, but does not realize Danny is hiding. He chooses a path and resumes chasing Danny. Danny comes out of his hiding spot and follows his own footprints to the maze's entrance.
Wendy makes her way out of the hotel just as Danny emerges from the maze. Relieved, she flings down the knife and embraces him. They climb together into the snowcat, and drive away from the Overlook Hotel. Jack, hearing the engine of the machine, realizes he has lost and screams in rage and anguish. Hopelessly lost in the maze, he freezes to death.
popular
culture
References to The Shining are prominent in U.S. popular culture, particularly
in movies, TV shows and other visual media, but also in songs. The film itself
has a theme of popular culture and high culture, making its own cultural references
in an ironic way to warn against "molding your personality after pop culture
images."
Parodied in the segment "The Shinning" from a Halloween
episode of The Simpsons
Scenes have been imitated in various music videos,
such as The Kill by 30 Seconds to Mars (The band has an entire hotel to themselves,
and experience similar hallucinations as Jack did in the film, as well as a couple
from the book), Spit It Out by Slipknot (Joey Jordison cycling the same type of
tricycle that Danny does in The Shining) and Symphony 2000 by EPMD (Guest rapper
Redman cuts down a door in the same fashion as Jack, as well as stick his head
through it).
The British New Wave group Squeeze's The 12" version of
the song, Last Time Forever like the album version from, Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti
contains brief samples from the film line. "A momentary loss of muscular
coordination", along with screams from Wendy in the bathroom when Jack is
swinging the axe at the door. The 7" version edits them out.
The Season
One, Episode Ten of the television show Sifl and Olly once featured a segment
about blacklisted Mother Goose characters. One such character was named "Jack"
and was clearly modeled after Nicholson's rendition of Jack Torrance. The character's
poems were deemed unsuitable, such as "Jack be angry/Jack be mad/Jack bashed
in the skull of your dad!"
The computer game Blood has a level which
resembles the Overlook Hotel. The level, which is on the fourth level of the second
episode, is entitled "The Overlooked Hotel", and even features a frozen
Jack Torrance.
In the film Clerks II, during the scene where Elias is explaining
"Pillow Pants" to Randal, the theme to The Shining can be heard in the
background, giving a seemingly silly story an air of creepiness. However, this
is really not the "theme" per se to The Shining, but is really the musical
setting for Dies Irae.
The television show Spaced made a reference to 'The
Shining' in its first episode, when Marsha is showing Tim and Daisy the apartment
in a similar way to how Jack and Wndy are shown around theirs. They even repeat
the line "It's perfect for a child." There is also an instance of Tim
and Daisy opening a cupboard to find two deadpan twins saying cleaning the cupboards
took 'forever and ever and ever', a direct reference to the twin girls in Kubrick's
film. There are numerous other references to other parts of the film throughout
the series.
The 21st episode of Pani Poni Dash! featured many cutaways of
movies played by the characters, one of them being The Shining with Mesousa playing
as Jack's role and Kurumi playing as Wendy's role, respectively.
In an episode
of The Fairly Oddparents, Vicky cuts through a door with an axe and instead of
saying "Here's Johnny" she says "Here's Vicky"
In the
romantic comedy film Benny & Joon, the first shot from The Shining can be
seen as a poster on a wall.
In the disaster film Twister, the movie is playing
in the iconic scene involving the drive-in.
In Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi,
the scene where Jack breaks down the door with an axe is recreated for comedic
effect when the female protagonist, Arumi, tries to escape a bunch of monsters
in a building.
In an episode of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps,
Jonny approaches Janet from behind with a saw and says "Here's Jonny!".
Metalcore band Fear Before the March of Flames wrote a song called 237 with
lyrical references to the Shining.
In the end credits of an episode of Spin
City, James is seen walking through the Mayors country lodge with an axe. We see
him chasing a Thanksgiving turkey through the house, finally arriving at a door
into a room where the turkey has just hidden. James takes to the door with the
axe. The next cut resembles the famous "Here's Johnny" scene except
James screams "Here's Jamesy" instead.
In a scene for the Tony Hawk
animated feature "Boom Boom Sabotage", there is a scene where two carnies
go through a hotel on a Big Wheel. The room they arrive at is room 237.
Also,
in Tony Hawk's Project 8, the player encounters the creepy twins from The Shining
who require you to do a mission
In the Family Guy episode "Peter Peter
Caviar Eater", the twin girls appear when Stewie is exploring the house,
saying, "Come play with us Stewie, for ever and ever and ever", as they
do to Danny in the film, to which Stewie replies, "Well, all work and no
play make Stewie a dull boy", (as Jack has written on his papers) before
shooting them with a rocket launcher. Also, at the beginning of the episode Love
Thy Trophy, Stewie is shown playing with blocks that spell "REDRUM".
The twins appear again in the opening of the episode PTV, when Stewie is seen
riding on his tricycle through the hallway of the Overlook and running over the
two girls.
The BBC Arena documentary about The Hotel Chelsea made in 1981
features a small boy riding a tricycle through the corridors of the hotel in a
homage to The Shining.
The Disney Channel show That's So Raven episode Rae
of Sunshine has Raven holding an ax and about to crash through the basement door
yelling "HERE'S RAVEN!!"
The comedy film Knocked Up makes a reference
to The Shining. The male protagonist Seth Rogen references Scatman Crothers, the
hedge maze, and redrum by saying redbush.
In an episode of the television
show The Boondocks (Entitled "Stinkmeaner Strikes Back"), a possessed
Tom Dubois cuts down Robert Freeman's door with an axe, and sticks his head through
in the same way Jack Torrence did.
In the Disney film Finding Nemo, Bruce
pounds at a door in a submarine while chasing Marlin and Dory. He creates a hole
and instead of saying "Here's Johnny!", he says "Here's Brucie!"
In the Nickelodeon show Rocko's Modern Life in the episode entitled "Uniform
Behavior" Heffer gets a job working security at local corporation Conglom-O,
and sees the iconic twins while patrolling the building and has a run in with
Lloyd at the Milk Bar; most of the dialogue exchanged between the two is very
similar in The Shining.
In the Disney film Max Keeble's Big Move, as Principle
Jindraike enters the janitor's room, instead of "Here's Johnny!", he
says "Here's Jinny!"
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